A Little Christmas Tree Gift

For the last twenty plus years, I have baked Christmas cookies with a friend. We have quite a production going baking two batches of 16 different kinds. This weekend we are baking and I wanted to bring a little gift to her, so I sat down and started tracing circle shapes of green in 2 different sizes. I picked a wintery background and started blanket stitching them in the shape of a tree. 

 

 

I picked greens of different values and themes.

 

Stitched them one by one.

 

Added a red ribbon "garland"

 

Quilted it all in a metallic blue.

 

And finis! A cute little Christmas tree wall-hanging I will be happy to give my friend.

 

Grand Illusion Clue 2

Working on week 2 of Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt. I decided that my original focus fabric, from which I pulled my color scheme, will be my neutral instead of a border. So off I went using method 3, the rectangles with the sew on squares yielding the little bonus triangles.

 

 

 

A little Netflix Criminal Minds is always my sewing companion...

 

Things are looking good so far, and the bonus triangles are kinda cute!

 

Happy with the way things lined up!

Measurements look good....2 down, a bazillion to go!

Wednesday Bag Ladies Annual Christmas Party 2014

The swaps were completed and the big night is here...the annual Wednesday Bag Ladies Christmas party!! WooHoo!! The Bag Ladies got our name from the obvious....we sew together on Wednesdays!

 

Each year we put in a piece of fabric, they all go into brown bags and we select blindly. It's so much fun to make the swaps and even more fun to exchange. We always crack up laughing as a good number of us cannot remember which fabric we put in!

 

The first to be opened was this sweet little quilt...the swap fabric was the snowman toss that was turned into ornaments!

 

 

 

The swapper (Kathy)  and swappee  (Donna) come together to take a picture....

 This swap was the Christmas tree panel that is popular. Nancy took the snowflakes off and made a little runner and some coasters with them, and then embellished the tree with crystals...really elegant!

 

Lorraine received this wall-hanging from Laura. In Wanchese NC, there is a large population of horses and riders, which some may find unusual considering it's on a barrier island. The horses with wreathes fit in with that and the bottom of the piece had gorgeous trim that looked like a horses trimmed mane!

 

Nancy used the wedge ruler and Laura's red fabric to make a gorgeous table topper!

 

Joan used the Cyl's Christmas floral as a border for a Lil Twister wreath on a wall-hanging.

 

Nancy used the really pretty holly print (that she loaned me) to make a Christmas tree wall hanging and some adorable embellished towels.

Colleen used Nancy's Christmas floral to do some border magic on a panel.

 

I used Colleen's Grinch toss....and confirmed that she has no more of this fabric for swapping next year!

 

Here we are at last year's party, with the Grinchy toss fabric incorporated into the wall-hanging I made. :)

 

Merry Christmas 2014 Wednesday Bag Ladies!!

Annual Christmas Swap

Each year a group of quilters who are so dear to me, swap fabrics for a Christmas gift exchange. We send in a piece of fabric, they all go in brown bags, we trade and then we go to town to come up with a piece that incorporates the fabric. We then meet for a fabulous party of swapping, food and laughter.

 

This year, oddly enough, I received the exact same piece of fabric that I drew last year!! A blue background Grinch and Christmas tree toss. This fabric challenged me last year and again this year!

 

I saw a few versions of this on the internet, so off I went.....

 

 

I put a little bit of batting into the Grinchy hand to give some dimension to the piece.

 

Incorporating the Grinch toss, again was border magic as those Grinches and trees faced every which way! I though a little "Merry Merry" would do the trick.

Finis! I like the piece, a fun little wall quilt.

Grand Illusion Week 1

 

Well the annual insanity has started again with another holiday mystery ala Bonnie Hunter. This year it is the Grand Illusion Mystery with BH-GI Clue 1 published on Friday November 28.  The first clue calls for a boat load of half square triangles made with the Easy Angle ruler. This ruler is actually growing on me now that I have used it a few times to turn 2 1/2 inch strips into 2 inch finished hst's.

 

 

I haven't quite decided if I am going for the full 88x88 size yet...but I have made a decent little dent into the needed 280!

 

I did decided to alter the color way:

• where Bonnie has pink I have orange.
• where Bonnie has black I have purple
• where Bonnie has yellow I have gold.





 

My inspiration fabric which will be my border is one that has been in my stash for awhile. I just pulled colors from that fabric. I think it will all work and I used things that were in my stash so clearly there is virtue there! ha!

 

The gold is actually more contrasted to the orange in person...not as much in the picture.

 

I will keep plugging along until the next clue comes out on Friday!

No Name Swappers

Swap Day! Tuesday the Puss in the Corner swap finally came!

 

 

Fourteen of us swapped 6 blocks each and I came home with a delicious stack of close to 80 blocks! It was like Christmas going through each block and seeing the fantastic color combinations and gorgeous fabrics.

 

While I like the original inspiration for the quilt, what many in the group will be making, Fons and Porter Butterscotch Quilt, I think I am going with another layout....setting the blocks on point with a solid alternating block.

 

Next the group wrestled with the decision as to what block we would swap next. The vote went with "Crosses and Losses." The Crosses and Losses quilt block is a four patch block attributed to the Ladies Art Company. It also goes by the names of Fox and Geese or Bouncing Betty. We picked an 8 inch finished block to work with.

 

Those triangles make me a bit nervous....looks like triangle paper will come in handy!

 



WIPW Inspired by Autumn Skies

Though there hasn't been too much sewing going on here in the last week,but there is a little project that I am working on when I can steal a moment or two. I had the opportunity to drive the back roads of Virginia between Farmville and Harrisonburg recently. The sky that day was crisp clear blue, that unfortunately these pictures don't adequately capture. Nonetheless, the leaves were turning color and were brilliant against the sky.

 I made a stop at Lib's Place and found the most brilliant blue batik very much like the October sky.

I got in my head half square triangles of leaf colored fabrics arranging in some pattern that would be like wind. With that in mind I got out my triangle paper and started working on the HST's.

 

HST's always sound like a good idea until you have to rip the paper and iron all those buggers.

 

Eventually...sewing something resembling the sky started....

 

So I started sewing them together. My idea is an offset pinwheel wallhanging....with the quilting like the wind and maybe a few of the leaves will have some veins quilted in leaf colors.

So there you have it, my work in progress for Wednesday.